PHILADELPHIA — All-Star Week in Philadelphia opens this Friday, and the first game on the calendar belongs to college baseball’s next wave.

The fourth annual HBCU Swingman Classic presented by USA Baseball takes over Citizens Bank Park on July 10, giving 50 of the top Division I players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities a national stage before the Majors’ own All-Stars take the field.

Quick facts

  • When: Friday, July 10 — gates open 5 p.m. ET, first pitch 7 p.m. ET
  • Where: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
  • Watch: MLB Network and MLB.com, with Dave Sims on play-by-play and Harold Reynolds analyzing
  • Tickets: On sale now at AllStarGame.com/Swingman

Two familiar faces in the dugouts

This year’s rosters are split into a National League squad managed by Phillies Wall of Famer and 2007 NL MVP Jimmy Rollins, and an American League squad led by longtime big leaguer and HBCU baseball legend Rickie Weeks. Both will lean on coaching staffs stacked with former big leaguers with deep ties to HBCU baseball.

A hometown storyline

For Philadelphia fans, the roster has a local hook. Delaware State’s Santino Harwood, a Roman Catholic High School product, and Lincoln University’s Solomon McKinney will both take the field close to home — McKinney becomes the first player from Lincoln, the nation’s first degree-granting HBCU, to make the Classic. They’ll join players from 19 different HBCU programs around the country, including several returning faces like Norfolk State’s Justin Journette and Southern’s KJ White Jr., both back for another shot at the spotlight.

For coaches like Milt Thompson, a Howard University alum now serving on the American League bench staff, the event is as much about visibility as it is about competition. As he put it to a Philadelphia TV station, most fans know HBCUs have been around for generations, but “we really don’t know a lot about them.”

More than a game

The Classic has grown into a full showcase of HBCU culture beyond the box score. This year’s pregame slate includes a trip to Philadelphia City Hall, where the full roster will take part in an educational program honoring Octavius V. Catto — the 19th-century HBCU alum and civil rights figure who helped found one of the country’s first organized Black baseball clubs — before visiting his memorial. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Lincoln University graduate, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch, and performances from Grammy winner Durand Bernarr and Howard University alum Eric Roberson will round out the ceremony. Uniform patches this year will also honor the late Roger Cador, the longtime Southern University coach who helped shape generations of HBCU talent, including Weeks.

Griffey’s vision, still growing

Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. founded the event in 2023 after watching talented players miss out on the exposure that comes with bigger programs and bigger budgets. Comedian and Florida A&M graduate Roy Wood Jr., who’s supported the Classic since it began, has described Griffey’s presence around the players as that of “a baseball magnet for all the Black greatness that preceded these young men.” Griffey has said his real measure of success will be the number of Swingman Classic alumni who eventually hear their names called on Draft day — a number he’d like to see keep climbing every year.

What’s next

The Swingman Classic is just the opening act. Capital One All-Star Village opens the following day, July 11, and runs through the week, building toward the 2026 MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard on Tuesday, July 14 — also at Citizens Bank Park, airing live on FOX at 8 p.m. ET.

For now, though, the spotlight this week belongs to the players who’ve spent their college careers proving they belong on baseball’s biggest stages.